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SPIRIT OF THE RADICALS.

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party, instead of men from whom some impartial consideration of the subject might be expected as possible. But, notwithstanding all this effort at "hedging," the radicals were in a state of extreme trepidation. The Convention contained many gentlemen of great public reputation, and who had held eminent offices in the nation and at home, both from the border slave States and from several of the free States. There seemed reason to apprehend, that their deliberations might produce a strong public impression, and prove unfavorable to the interests and objects of the party. It was in this state of mind that the following despatch was sent to the Governor of Wisconsin, by a Red and Black Republican, who afterwards became somewhat notorious in a military capacity:

"To Governor RANDALL:

3

"February 1, 1861.

Appoint commissioners to Washington Conference-myself one-to strengthen our side. CARL SCHURZ."

The subjoined letter, also, from one of the Senators in Congress from Michigan, presenting the views of himself and his colleague, though often cited in the public journals, is of too much interest to be omitted here:

1

"WASHINGTON, February 11, 1861. "MY DEAR GOVERNOR: Governor Bingham 1 and myself telegraphed to you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York,' to send delegates to the Peace Compromise Congress. They admit that we were right and they were wrong; that no Republican State should have sent delegates; but they are here, and can't get away. Ohio, Indiana, and Rhode Island are caving in,

1 Mr. Bingham, one of the Senators from Michigan, wrote to the Governor of that State, from Washington, under date of February 15th:

"It cannot be doubted that the recommendations of this convention will have considerable influence upon the public mind and upon the action of Congress."

2 This letter, indicates, therefore, the coincidence of views between the. Massachusetts delegation and the Michigan Senator. In regard to New York, however, it was a partial misrepresentation. While a majority of its delegation were of the most "stiff-backed" description, there were others of a very different spirit. But, probably, the writer, who speaks of a State as if it were Republican property, reckoned all but the "stiff-backed " for nothing.

and there is some danger of Illinois; and now they beg us, for God's sake, to come to their rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I hope you will send stiff-backed men, or none. The whole thing was gotten up against my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still, I hope, as a matter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the delegates. Truly your friend,

"His Excellency AUSTIN BLAIR..

"Z. CHANDLER.

"P. S.-Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would be awful. Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a curse."

If this truly eloquent and statesmanlike epistle does not express the views of the Republican managers at the time, precisely, it does at least indicate with sufficient clearness, their relations towards the Peace Conference, and the determined purpose of the radicals to have "a fight;" and it furthermore foreshadows the actual direction given to future events. There were enough of the "stiff-backed" in the Peace Conference to deprive its deliberations and their result of all moral effect. They thought much more of saving "the Republican party from rupture," than of taking pains to prevent the threatened dissolution of the Union; an event which only too many of them actually desired, and which had now come so near, because, in the face of a calamity so dreadful, "conservative" Republicans and desperate radicals continued to hold together and to act in concert with each other. The occasion had drawn to the city of Washington very many persons of public and private reputation, especially from the North; and their efforts were not wanting, by argument and expostulation, to impress the radical members of the conference with whom they were acquainted, with the realities of the situation, and in striving to bring about a better understanding. It was all in vain. The reply was —when driven to an explicit avowal of what they desired"We have won the battle" (which was not the fact, since the victory had fallen to them by accident), " and we mean to have the fruits.' The conference continued its sessions until February 27th. It is useless to examine its doings in detail. A committee of one from each State represented had been ap

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PROPOSITIONS OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

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pointed at an early period of the proceedings, to consider the general subject before the conference; and its report, after the adoption of certain amendments, was finally agreed to by a majority of the delegates. The amendments to the Constitution proposed by the committee were contained in seven different propositions, the vote on each of which was taken separately:

I. Slavery was prohibited in territory north of the parallel of 36° 30', and permitted south of that line. No law was to be passed by Congress or the local legislatures, to prevent the taking of slaves into the latter territory; and on either side of the line, territory, with inhabitants sufficient and with a republican form of government, was to be admitted either with or without involuntary servitude, as its constitution might provide.

II. No future acquisition of territory was to be made, except by discovery and for certain national purposes, without the concurrence of a majority of Senators from the free States and the slave States respectively.

III. Congress was to have no power, by construction of the Constitution, or by any amendment of it, to interfere with slavery in any State, or in the District of Columbia, or in places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; nor to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one slave State or territory to another; but they were not to be taken through States or territories in which the laws forbade such transit. Slaves were not to be brought into the District of Columbia for sale, or to be kept there on the way to sale.

IV. No such construction was to be placed on the article of the Constitution which provides for the delivery of fugitives from service or labor, as to prevent States from passing laws for the enforcement of that provision.

V. The foreign slave trade was to be forever prohibited. VI. The provisions of the Constitution for the delivery of fugitives from service or labor, and in relation to the apportionment of representatives and direct taxes, were not to

be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.

VII. Congress was to provide by law for the payment, by the United States to the owner, of the full value of any slave rescued by violence or intimidation, or whose recovery might be prevented by the same means.1

1 It should be stated that Mr. Chase. at the period in question a Senator from Ohio, was also a member of the Peace Conference; and a brief letter written by him to a friend, at the time, expressing his apprehensions of an adjustment, came to light at a later period, and had extensive circulation in the newspapers of the day.

CHAPTER XIX.

Fair Basis of Settlement in the Propositions of the Peace Conference; but they were carried only by bare Majorities.-The Crittenden Resolutions.-The Committee of Thirteen. Mr. Toombs's Statement of its Spirit.-Mr. Douglas on the Resolutions.-Mr. Crittenden's Opinion of their Effect, had they been adopted.-Mr. Pugh and Mr. Douglas, as to the readiness of Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs to accept them, if agreed to by the Republican Members.-Resolutions already rejected by the House, lost in the Senate, by a Majority of One, Mr. Seward not voting. The two-thirds Vote necessary to give them Effect could not have been obtained, had all the Southern Senators been present.-Mr. Douglas's Statement that many of the Republican Leaders desired Dissolution aud War.-Mr. Everett's Letter, of February 2d, 1861, to the "Union" Meeting at Faneuil Hall, in Opposition to “Coercion," and stating the Party Obstacles to Adjustment.-Certain Anti-Abolition Resolutions pass the House.-The Faint-heartedness of the Class of Republican Leaders who were Union Men, but afraid of breaking up their Party, prevented the Settlement.

IN the foregoing propositions of the Peace Conference was evidently a sound basis for settlement of the controversy. These propositions came quite up to the resolutions. introduced by Mr. Crittenden, and to the recommendations of the General Assembly of Virginia, except in regard to the comparatively immaterial point of the transportation of slaves through the non-slaveholding States; and they would, doubtless, have been gladly acceded to by the slave States at an earlier period. Even now, if adopted by the conference, with any thing approaching to general concurrence, or if accepted and recommended by Congress, the country might have been saved from its coming trials. But here was the difficulty in the way. No such general concurrence had existed, and there was no hope whatever of the favorable action of Congress. Though the majority of the delegations from several of the free States voted uniformly in favor of

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